Faith Seeking Understanding

Love…When Basics Become Heresies

How do we harmonize the assurance that “God is love” with the assertion that “Our God is a consuming fire”? Most of us never think about such problems, and in the end our idea of love is indistinguishable from that of the world around us. –Leon Morris

[It is a tragic symptom of the unthinking Christians of our day that some would reject this book because of these citations from Mormon literature. These quotes were given as examples of when “Prayer becomes Heresy.”]

2. “The Plan of Our Heavenly Father,” Study Guide 1 (Corp. of the Pres. of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1986), p. 5.

3. History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 8 vols. (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1980), 6:305.

4. Deseret News, 14 November 1859.

5. History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 6:306.

6. John Wesley, The Works of John Wesley, 3d ed., 14 vols. (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1979), 1:397.

4. On this verse, F. F. Bruce writes, “Table-fellowship included the Eucharist . . . but was by no means confined to it; it constituted one of the most solemn bonds of brotherhood. Within the Christian community an unwarranted breach of table-fellowship was almost tantamount to a denial of the gospel truth (Gal. 2.11ff.); where it was warranted . . . it was bound to be taken seriously and was calculated to be one of the surest ways of bringing a delinquent church member to acknowledge the error of his ways.” See 1 and 2 Corinthians, NCBC, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans; London: Marshall, Morgan, & Scott, 1980.

16. Becky Beane, “Forgiveness” tract, p. 14. Article originally published by Prison Fellowship Ministries in Jubilee, Spring 1998. Please Note: To be fair to the writer, she does say that “reconciliation . . . requires repentance.” She just does not see the biblical condition of repentance as preceding forgiveness. Like so many, she uses forgiveness more broadly than the Bible does, using it synonymously for fruits like love and mercy.

Covers

“Happiness is not to be found by dancing after any heathen god of love. Happiness is found by looking up to where a more terrible but a more tender God of love hangs, not on Olympus but on Calvary.”–G.K. Chesterton

[…] Love, Prayer and Forgiveness: When Basics Become Heresies is an apt reminder to Christians no matter where they are and no matter how basic or advanced their comprehension of the Word of God, that adding worldly wisdom to the Holy Scriptures is as great a sin as removing the connection between the verses of the Bible. Michael has specifically stated this connection between the verses of the Bible as ‘the holy conjunction’ which is the word ‘and’ in the Scriptures. There are many verses that have the word ‘and’ which completes the meaning of the verses. […]